Blended Cognition

This edited volume is about how unprejudiced approaches to real human cognition can improve the design of AI. It covers many aspects of human cognition and across 12 chapters the reader can explore multiple approaches about the complexities of human cognitive skills and reasoning, always guided by experts from different but complimentary academic fields. A central concept is explained: blended cognition, the natural skill of human beings for combining constantly different heuristics during their several task-solving activities. Something that was sometimes observed like a problem as “bad reasoning”, is now the central key for the understanding of the richness, adaptability and creativity of human cognition. The topic of this book connects in a significant way with the disciplines of psychology, neurology, anthropology, philosophy, logics, engineering, logics, and AI. In a nutshell: understanding better humans for designing better machines. Any person with interests on natural and artificial reasoning should read this book as a primary source of inspiration and a way to achieve a critical thinking on these topics.

This book shows how Shakespeare’s excellence as storyteller, wit and poet reflects the creative process of conceptual blending. Cognitive theory provides a wealth of new ideas that illuminate Shakespeare, even as he illuminates them, and the theory of blending, or conceptual integration, strikingly corroborates and amplifies both classic and current insights of literary criticism. This study explores how Shakespeare crafted his plots by fusing diverse story elements and compressing incidents to strengthen dramatic illusion; considers Shakespeare’s wit as involving sudden incongruities and a reckoning among differing points of view; interrogates how blending generates the “strange meaning” that distinguishes poetic expression; and situates the project in relation to other cognitive literary criticism. This book is of particular significance to scholars and students of Shakespeare and cognitive theory, as well as readers curious about how the mind works.

In today's managed-care environment, therapeutic techniques must be proven to be effective to be reimbursable. This comprehensive volume is written by leaders in the field and collects classic and emerging evidence-based and cognitive behavioral therapy treatments therapists can use when working with children and adolescents. Step-by-step instruction is provided for implementing the treatment protocol covered. In addition, a special section is included on therapist self-care, including empirically supported studies. For child and play therapists, as well school psychologists and school social workers.

This book presents a framework for integrating blended learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the Indian education system. It argues that blended teaching and learning is the most suitable approach to education in a post-COVID-19 world. Drawing on case studies used in blended learning practices around the world, the book provides ample resources for beginners to improvise the spread of knowledge around information technology in higher education. It discusses various concepts such as flip learning in blended learning models and examines the self-assessment tools and structures it offers to institutions for building competencies. In addition to addressing the challenges and opportunities of adopting the digital mode of teaching, the book also offers techniques and concepts helpful for designing MOOCs. It covers concepts such as curriculum designing, content flow, teaching behavior, and evaluation patterns, which are important aspects of online teaching. An indispensable guide to navigating the shift from offline to online teaching, this book will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers of education, education technology, digital education, and information technology. It will also be useful to policymakers, educational institutions, EdTech start-ups, NGOs in the education sector, and online education centers.

In today's managed-care environment, therapeutic techniques must be proven to be effective to be reimbursable. This comprehensive volume is written by leaders in the field and collects classic and emerging evidence-based and cognitive behavioral therapy treatments therapists can use when working with children and adolescents. Step-by-step instruction is provided for implementing the treatment protocol covered. In addition, a special section is included on therapist self-care, including empirically supported studies. For child and play therapists, as well school psychologists and school social workers.

Provides insight into the practice of blended learning in higher education.

Analogy has been the focus of extensive research in cognitive science over the past two decades. Through analogy, novel situations and problems can be understood in terms of familiar ones. Indeed, a case can be made for analogical processing as the very core of cognition. This is the first book to span the full range of disciplines concerned with analogy. Its contributors represent cognitive, developmental, and comparative psychology; neuroscience; artificial intelligence; linguistics; and philosophy. The book is divided into three parts. The first part describes computational models of analogy as well as their relation to computational models of other cognitive processes. The second part addresses the role of analogy in a wide range of cognitive tasks, such as forming complex cognitive structures, conveying emotion, making decisions, and solving problems. The third part looks at the development of analogy in children and the possible use of analogy in nonhuman primates. Contributors Miriam Bassok, Consuelo B. Boronat, Brian Bowdle, Fintan Costello, Kevin Dunbar, Gilles Fauconnier, Kenneth D. Forbus, Dedre Gentner, Usha Goswami, Brett Gray, Graeme S. Halford, Douglas Hofstadter, Keith J. Holyoak, John E. Hummel, Mark T. Keane, Boicho N. Kokinov, Arthur B. Markman, C. Page Moreau, David L. Oden, Alexander A. Petrov, Steven Phillips, David Premack, Cameron Shelley, Paul Thagard, Roger K.R. Thompson, William H. Wilson, Phillip Wolff

This book comprehensively analyzes the development of interculturally blended third spaces by the second language learner, beginning with the linguistic and sociocultural imprints of the first language and culture on the mind and culminating in the proposal of a phase-model of the development of intercultural competence. The foundational analysis of L1-mediated constructs is followed by an analysis of forms interaction, concepts of identity and constructs of culture/interculture, thus shifting the object of analysis from the subjective to the intersubjective levels of construction and interaction. The focus of the book is on the gradual development of interculturally blended third spaces in the mind of the learner as genuinely new bases for construction. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on research in cultural psychology, linguistic anthropology, critical theory, language acquisition and second language learning and shows how culture and interculture need to be emphasized as an integral part of second language learning.

Writing, reading, and interpretation are acts of human minds, requiring complex cognition at every point. A relatively new field of studies, cognitive linguistics, focuses on how language and cognition are interconnected: Linguistic structures both shape cognitive patterns and are shaped by them. The Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation section of the Society of Biblical Literature gathers scholars interested in applying cognitive linguistics to biblical studies, focusing on how language makes meaning, how texts evoke authority, and how contemporary readers interact with ancient texts. This collection of essays represents first fruits from the first six years (2006–2012) of that effort, drawing on cognitive metaphor study, mental spaces and conceptual blending, narrative theory, and cognitive grammar. Contributors include Eve Sweetser, Ellen van Wolde, Hugo Lundhaug and Jesper T. Nielsen.

This book presents an analysis of how the processes described in Conceptual Blending Theory can be applied in practice, on the basis of Michał Batory’s posters designed for artistic events. Therefore, it begins with an introduction of the origins of Conceptual Blending Theory, the very nature and elements of conceptual blending as a linguistic and mental phenomenon. It also provides an overview of the models and types of integration networks, which is followed by an analysis of vital relations that accompany the blending process. Importantly, the principles constraining Conceptual Blending Theory, together with the criticism levelled at Fauconnier and Turner’s approach are put forward. The book then moves on to analyse Michał Batory’s posters in terms of conceptual blending processes. The blended space is meticulously discussed and illustrated to show explicitly how two distinct notions are combined to create a new meaning that is non-computable from the two input spaces. The interaction that occurs between the inscriptions and images is very distinct in every single poster. The analysis highlights how Batory’s artefacts influence people and convey the hidden message, with the use of strong visual and verbal elements that accompany the blending process.